Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900

The Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 is the primary constitutional text of the Commonwealth of Australia.

The constitution was enacted as an Act of the United Kingdom parliament. It provided the new system of government for the new federation, which consisted at its inception on 1 January 1901 of the former separate colonies of

The Act vested authority in the Queen, making her the Australian head of state similar to other Commonwealth Realms. In 1973, the monarch was formally designated as 'Queen of Australia'. A representative of the Queen was provided for, known as the Governor-General, who in practice fulfils most of the roles normally possessed by a head of state. Some consider the Governor-General of Australia to be the de facto head of state as the British monarch rarely exercises the reserve powers that the constitution grants to the Crown; however the constitution makes clear that the Governor-General is in no sense a head of state, merely a head of state's representative who in the name of the head of state, or in his own name as representative of the head of state, carries out specified functions and exercises certain powers.

The parliament of the United Kingdom possessed the legal right to make constitutional legislation for the Commonwealth of Australia. From the adoption of the 1931Statute of Westminster, this could only happen if specifically requested by the Government of the Commonweath of Australia. This power was only removed by the enactment in 1986 by both Australia and the United Kingdom of the Australia Act, which 'repatriated' the Australian constitution and gave Australia absolute ownership of its lawmaking, to the complete and final exclusion of Britain.

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